So, as we warned a couple weeks back, Observer gardening guru Dan Pearson visited the allotment to cast an expert eye over our progress (all a bit Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares but with slugs instead of swearing). Luckily we didn't have a 'Gordon scallop-spitting' moment though we thought Dan might choke on his chocolate brownie when we said how much liked the overgrown nettle banks that surrounded the site even if they did harbour predatory pests... and we'll draw a discreet veil over his white-faced response to the news that the only 'plant food' we are using has been stored over winter in buried bovine body parts (they don't teach that at Wisley!).

Proof of the apple pudding: our biodynamic fruit and veg

But after he left for leafy Peckham and our inspection was over we relaxed and realised we learned a lot from his visit (such as cutting down the nettles, slaughtering the slugs and how lunatic planting by the moon can sound to professional gardeners).